LIFE OF THE PARTY Director: Ben Falcone Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Molly Gordon, Maya Rudolph, Gillian Jacobs, Luke Benward, Julie Bowen, Heidi Gardner, Debby Ryan, Jacki Weaver, Stephen Root Melissa McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone frequently collaborate on a variety of projects. They’ll write the script together while he directs it and she stars as the lead. Life of the Party is their third movie together following 2014’s Tammy and 2016’s The Boss. I’d rank this film as the best of the three. In it McCarthy plays Deanna who is heartbroken after waiving goodbye to her daughter, Maddie (Gordon), who’s entering her freshman year ofRead More →

THE BOSS Director: Ben Falcone Starring: Melissa McCarthey, Kristen Bell, Ella Anderson, Peter Dinklage, Kristen Schaal, Cecily Strong, Kathy Bates, Tyler Labine, Margo Martindale, Cedric Yarbrough Melissa McCarthy and her husband/creative partner, Ben Falcone, are back with another loud-mouthed character that aligns with many of the other characters she has created recently. She plays Michelle Darnell who spent her childhood being tossed around from foster home to foster home thanks to Margo Martindale’s character. Now she’s a business titan who has risen from the ashes to become a confident and successful career woman. She’s dressed to the nines in head to toe designer labels andRead More →

BAD WORDS Director: Jason Bateman Starring: Jason Bateman, Kathryn Hahn, Allison Janney, Rohan Chand, Phillip Baker Hall, Ben Falcone I sometimes wonder what drives actors and directors to certain projects. I then wonder if I’m maybe missing something. Am I in a bad mood? Why am I not laughing? Such is the case when it came to Bad Words. Jason Bateman is one of those child stars that actually transitioned pretty well into working as an adult in the business. He will always be Michael Bluth to me after his four seasons on “Arrested Development”. For his big screen directorial debut, he chose this scriptRead More →

ENOUGH SAIDDirector: Nicole HolofcenerStarring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Toni Collette, Catherine Keener, Ben Falcone So what happens when two iconic Emmy winning actors from two of my favorite television shows do a movie together? They prove, yet again, that they are more than just Tony Soprano and Elaine Benes. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Eva, a divorced single mother working as a masseuse and looking for more in life. Her daughter is heading off to college soon, and she is determined to soak in as much mother-daughter time as she can. She attends a party with her friends Sarah (Collette) and Will (Falcone) and awkwardly mingles withRead More →